{"id":780811,"date":"2026-07-24T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/780811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T00:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:05:10","slug":"stevie-nicks-misunderstood-a-southern-womans-accent-it-inspired-one-of-her-most-iconic-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/780811\/","title":{"rendered":"Stevie Nicks misunderstood a Southern woman’s accent. It inspired one of her most iconic songs."},"content":{"rendered":"

It was just one of those things. A vowel sound<\/a> was ever-so-slightly altered by a Southern accent, leading one word to sound like another.\u00a0More specifically, a long \u201ca\u201d became a short \u201ce,\u201d changing the entire meaning of one word. Thus, a poetic song title was born.<\/p>\n

Iconic musician Stevie Nicks<\/a> had just gone solo from her band Fleetwood Mac when she found herself chatting with Tom Petty\u2019<\/a>s first wife, Jane Benyo. Digging into their relationship, a topic Nicks certainly liked writing about, she asked Jane how old she was when she and Petty met. But the simple answer was misunderstood due to that vowel miscommunication. Accents can be funny that way.<\/p>\n

\"steveStevie Nicks performing at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. Credit: Ralph Alversen\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

Just a slight twang<\/p>\n

Benyo said they had met at the \u201cage of seventeen.\u201d Nicks heard, \u201cedge of seventeen,\u201d and an absolute classic hit song was born. The story, which has been posted over time on social media and verified by Nicks herself, has gone viral yet again after an Instagram handle called RockBlog (@rockblog101<\/a>) re-shared it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RockBlog posted a photo of Nicks playing the piano next to another picture of her with Petty and his beloved guitar. The top of the post reads, \u201cWhen Stevie Nicks met Tom Petty\u2019s wife, she asked when they met. She said \u2018The age of seventeen.\u2019 But with her Southern accent, Nicks heard \u2018edge of seventeen.\u2019 She\u2019d never heard the phrase before, but it stuck with her and inspired the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song, of course, refers to her massive hit \u201cEdge of Seventeen,\u201d which debuted on Nicks\u2019s first solo album\u00a0Bella Donna\u00a0in\u00a01981. It was released as a single early the next year with the title, \u201cEdge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove).\u201d It went on to become one of her biggest solo releases, climbing all the way to 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How it all happened<\/p>\n

Now, when it comes to Nicks and romance, there\u2019s always a bit of backstory. In this case, after relationships with Fleetwood Mac bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, it was time to spread her proverbial wings.<\/p>\n

She later dated renowned music producer Jimmy Iovine, who just happened to be co-producing Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers\u2019) third album, Damn the Torpedoes.<\/a> That\u2019s how Nicks met Petty and his first wife, and if that series of events hadn\u2019t occurred, the song would have likely had a different title.<\/p>\n

Nicks herself told the story<\/a> as well. \u201cThe immediate inspiration is from Jane Petty, who is Tom\u2019s wife, because she told me that when she met Tom he was, she said, \u2018at the age of seventeen\u2019 but she has this incredible southern drawl so it sounded like \u2018edge of seventeen\u2019 and I said, \u2018Jane, (I\u2019m writing it on the menu, right! I\u2019m going\u2026) I\u2019m writing a song called \u2018Edge of Seventeen.\u2019 And she laughs, you know, she didn\u2019t ever think I was ever serious. So it started out about Tom and Jane basically, who I have no idea what they were at 17, but I made it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

White winged dove<\/p>\n

But the song itself changed in meaning too. The \u201cwhite winged dove\u201d part came along after John Lennon died. Nicks has explained on multiple occasions that the song was written for both Lennon (who had been close to Iovine) and for her Uncle John, who passed away while she held his hand. She quotes and explains lyrics from the song on VH1 Storytellers<\/a>: \u201cSo when it says \u2018I went running down the hall, searching for somebody. Upstairs and down the hall, I did not hear an answer. But I did hear the call of the night bird,\u2019 that\u2019s what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of its origins, it\u2019s considered one of the best songs of all time, coming in at 217 on Rolling Stone\u2018s \u201cGreatest 500 Songs of All Time.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

Imagine what the title would have been if Jane Petty had been Irish.<\/p>\n

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